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Now one can find the 1844 book Crania Ægyptiaca, by Samuel George Morton online. Most of Mortons conclusions are of course outdated but there are still several well executed and informative illustrations in the book.
quote: Samuel George Morton (January 26, 1799 – May 15, 1851) was an American physician, natural scientist, and writer who argued against the single creation story of the Bible, monogenism, instead supporting a theory of multiple racial creations, polygenism.
His measurements of skulls were criticized by the well known author and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould in the book The Mismeasure of Man, where Gould claimed that Morton skewed measurements out of bias. The Mismeasure of Man
Goulds claims in their turn have been questioned
quote: Stephen Jay Gould, the prominent evolutionary biologist and science historian, argued that “unconscious manipulation of data may be a scientific norm” because “scientists are human beings rooted in cultural contexts, not automatons directed toward external truth” [1], a view now popular in social studies of science [2]–[4]. In support of his argument Gould presented the case of Samuel George Morton, a 19th-century physician and physical anthropologist famous for his measurements of human skulls. Morton was considered the objectivist of his era, but Gould reanalyzed Morton's data and in his prize-winning book The Mismeasure of Man [5] argued that Morton skewed his data to fit his preconceptions about human variation. Morton is now viewed as a canonical example of scientific misconduct. But did Morton really fudge his data? Are studies of human variation inevitably biased, as per Gould, or are objective accounts attainable, as Morton attempted? We investigated these questions by remeasuring Morton's skulls and reexamining both Morton's and Gould's analyses. Our results resolve this historical controversy, demonstrating that Morton did not manipulate data to support his preconceptions, contra Gould. In fact, the Morton case provides an example of how the scientific method can shield results from cultural biases.
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^ I've read Morton's book years ago. Yes his conclusions are outdated and obviously racist since he subscribed to the scientific racism popular in his time, but Morton was one of the first to do extensive anthropometry and analyses of ancient Egyptian skulls and his measurements still prove accurate.
I believe it was Morton who first noted that dynastic Egyptian skulls and especially predynastic skulls in calvaria shape and volume was "negroid" but the faces were "caucasoid" hence he helped developed the "Hamitic Hypothesis" as the answer.
Morton was one of the first physical anthropologists who suggest clinal variation. For example, within his grouping of the Caucasian race he categorized subgroups like the 'Semitic Type' of Southwest Asia especially the Levant, the 'Pelasgian Type' of Southern Europe especially in Greece and the Aegean, as well as the 'Egyptian Type' of the Nile Valley. However within the Egyptian Type he further differentiates Lower Egyptians as 'Egypto-Pelasgic' and Upper Egyptians as 'Austral-Egyptian' or "Ethiopian" and he considers "fine-featured" Africans of northern Sudan like the Nubians and the Horn region to be members of the Caucasian race as well!
-------------------- Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog-tulugan. Posts: 26429 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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It is interesting that many of the skulls still have hair attached to them. Many seem not to have had tightly curled hair but more loose, sometimes straight, sometimes wavy or loose curly.
One can wonder if the hair on the skulls corresponds with how it looked like when they lived and if embalmment and mummification altered the hair texture?
Or did just their hair vary in texture and curliness?
Seemed there were differences. A couple of examples
quote:Plate XII., Fig. 7. (Cat. 823.) An unmixed Negro, with a narrow, elongated head, well-developed forehead, short and flat nasal bones, everted upper jaw, and short, gray, woolly hair. This appears to be the cranium of a woman of at least 60 years of age. The bones are thin, and the whole structure remarkably small.—
quote:Plate XII., Figs. 1, 2. (Cat. 845.) An oval head with a full forehead, and long aquiline nose. The orbits are far apart, and the balls replaced with bone, on which the iris is distinctly painted. The hair, which is cut short, is fine and straight.
quote:Plate IV., Fig. 1. (Cat. 833.) A large, oval head, with a very low, receding forehead, and large, aquiline nose. A man of 35 years? The hair is long, soft, and curling, and the beard is partially preserved on the lower jaw. Pelasgic form?
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^I take it that you brought this up due to my post here with the following Pseudo-Aristotle quote: "...Is it because the bodies of living creatures become distorted by heat, like logs of wood when they become dry? The condition of their hair supports this theory; for it is curlier than that of other nations, and curliness is as it were crookedness of the hair."
quote:Originally posted by Archeopteryx: It is interesting that many of the skulls still have hair attached to them. Many seem not to have had tightly curled hair but more loose, sometimes straight, sometimes wavy or loose curly.
Note that Pseudo-Aristotle's point wasn't how "tightly curled" their hair was but simply that their hair was curlier or had the most curls. This is not the same as the coiled or 'kinky' hair type typical of Sub-Saharans.
The most popular classification system of hair used today is that of the famous hair stylist and hair care specialist Andre Walker who has 4 main catergories-- straight, wavy, curly, and coiled-- and three degrees of shaft curvature for each-- a, b, and c, giving 12 types in total.
By the way, hair texture is different from hair type with the former describing the thickness of the strand. The three types of texture being fine, medium, and thick.
According to Egyptologist Joann Fletcher who specializes in Egyptian hair and wigs has stated, "The vast majority of [mummy] hair samples discovered at the site were cymotrichous (wavy haired) in type [typically associated with 'Caucasians'] as opposed to helicotrichous (spiral haired) [typically associated with 'Negroes'], a feature which is standard through dynastic times..."
However, it should be pointed out that most Egyptians shaved their heads due to lice and especially the clergy for ritual purposes so the vast majority of mummies had scalps that were either bald or close cropped hairs. Yet even Fletcher has noted that the vast majority of Egyptians wigs were of the curly type.
Herodotus and other Greek writers described Egyptian hair as οὐλότριχες (oulotrichous) which literally means "wooly hair". Again some Afrocentrists try to translate this as coiled hair when Greco-Romans likened the hair to sheep's wool. In fact it was not uncommon for Egyptians to use sheep wool to make wigs
The priests' wigs above however are composed of human hairs since priests were forbidden from contact with sheep wool.
quote:One can wonder if the hair on the skulls corresponds with how it looked like when they lived and if embalmment and mummification altered the hair texture?
It's the latter-- the embalming process altered their hair as as explained here: Egyptology: Hanging in the Hair Two British anthropologists, Brothwell and Spearman, have found evidence of cortex keratin oxidation in ancient Egyptian hair. They held that the mummification process was responsible, because of the strong alkaline substance used. This resulted in the yellowing and browning of hair as well as the straightening effect. This means that visual appearance of the hair on mummies cannot disguise their racial affinities.
Again some Afrocentrists go so far as to suggest embalming fluids straightened their original kinky hair when it's more likely the chemicals relaxed the curly hairs to make them looser or make wavy hair straight.
quote:Or did just their hair vary in texture and curliness?
This is indeed also true considering that within Egypt there were ethnic differences especially between Lower and Upper Egypt.
The Social and Ritual Contextualisation of Ancient Egyptian Hair and Hairstyles from the Protodynastic to the End of the Old Kingdom Even though Egypt was made up of different social and cultural groups, with different traditions, mores and styles a uniform bodily image of self was created, taking elements from these cultures, particularly the amalgamation of Lower and Upper Egyptian styles and traditions (see Craig Patch 1995). The king wearing of the Double Crown, which was a combination of the White Crown that symbolised Upper Egypt and the Red Crown that symbolised Lower Egypt, is exemplary of this amalgamation. The role of hair and hairstyles in establishing a national identity was done through assimilating traditional Nile Valley hairstyles, such as the short-round curly styles, with the longer straighter Delta hairstyles (Capart 1956). These hairstyles would borrow aspects of one another, with the long style incorporating aspects of the short-curly style and vice a versa. It is therefore important to examine this area of adornment to better understand social systems in ancient Egypt.
And it's not just Lower Egyptians that had looser or straighter hair. The predynastic Badarians of Upper Egypt were also noted for having loose wavy hair despite their "negroid" facial features and this was not the result of embalming fluids. In fact this same type of hair among the Badarians which Brothwell and Spearman also noted was "semi-frizzy" is also found among Nubians as well as Horn Africans and some Nilotic groups further south. Which is why hair type alone was never a good indicator of "race" to begin with. This is why as far back as the 1910s the anthropologist Franz Boas developed the trichometric index which held surprising results for the Egyptians.
The cross-section of a hair shaft is measured with an instrument called a trichometer. From this you can get measurements for the minimum and maximum diameter of a hair The minimum measurement is then divided by the maximum and then multiplied by a hundred. This produces an index. A survey of the scientific literature produces the following breakdown:
San, Southern African 55.O0 Zulu, Southern African 55.O0 Sub-Saharan Africa 60.O0 Tasmanian (Black) 64.70 Australian (Black) 68.00 Western European 71.20 Asian Indian 73.00 Navajo American 77.00 Chinese 82.60
In the early 1970s the Czech anthropologist Eugene Strouhal examined pre-dynastic Egyptian skulls at Cambridge University. He sent some samples of the hair to the Institute of Anthropology at Charles University, Prague, to be analyzed. The hair samples were described as varying in texture from "wavy" to "curly" and in colour from "light brown" to "black". Strouhal summarized the results of the analysis: "The outline of the cross-sections of the hairs was flattened, with indices ranging from 35 to 65. These peculiarities also show the Negroid inference among the Badarians (pre-dynastic Egyptians)." The term "Negroid influence" suggests intermixture, but as the table suggests this hair is more "Negroid" than the San and the Zulu samples, currently the most Negroid hair in existence!
In another study, hair samples from ten 18th-25th dynasty individuals produced an average index of 51! As far back as 1877, Dr. Pruner-Bey analyzed six ancient Egyptian hair samples. Their average index of 64.4 was similar to the Tasmanians who lie at the periphery of the African-haired populations. A team of Italian anthropologists published their research in the Journal of Human Evolution in 1972 and 1980. They measured two samples consisting of 26 individuals from pre-dynastic, 12th dynasty and 18th dynasty mummies. They produced a mean index of 66.50 The overall average of all four sets of ancient Egyptian hair samples was 60.02. Sounds familiar . ., just check the table! ---Anu M'bantu and Fari Supia
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Obviously, African hair varies and you can see this in the Nile Valley to this very day and has nothing to do with "Eurasian mixture" which is the whole point of contention. Yes, it is also true that Eurasian mixture has occurred, but this idea that Africans cannot naturally have straight hair without mixture is bogus. Again, the ideas of Morton are all about promoting the pseudo science of "race" based on the idea that certain features are unique to certain populations as a "racial archetype" when that is nothing but pseudoscience. Yet that is exactly what Morton and most European early anthropologists were peddling, not only in Africa but all over the world. With the explicit assumption that features associated with "Eurasian" populations, especially those of western Europe, were markers of physical and intellectual superiority over other populations. So of course they have to see Eurasian affinities in ancient Egyptian remains or at least try to associate African indigenous features with Eurasians.
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^I take it that you brought this up due to my post here with the following Pseudo-Aristotle quote: "...Is it because the bodies of living creatures become distorted by heat, like logs of wood when they become dry? The condition of their hair supports this theory; for it is curlier than that of other nations, and curliness is as it were crookedness of the hair
I mostly brought it up because the pictures in Mortons book and his descriptions of the different hair types and textures.
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